Walking Tall | AccessAtlanta

Walking Tall

Inspired by a true story of a man who fought back against crime in his hometown by becoming the county sheriff.

FILM FACTS

Starring: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Kristen Wilson, Neal McDonough, Ashley Scott, Johnny Knoxville
Director: Kevin Bray
Rating: PG-13 for sequences of intense violence, sexual content, drug material and language
Genre: Comedy, Romance

Official movie site

See showtimes (PG-13) 86 minutes

Grade: C

Verdict: Less than "The Rundown." A lot less.

By BOB LONGINO
Cox News Service

There's nothing so wrong with the Rock's new head-knocker of a movie, "Walking Tall," that a good beating with a big stick wouldn't fix.

The stick is the main thing this remake has in common with the 1973 original and its story of redneck Sheriff Buford Pusser, rural Tennessee and law enforcement based on whomps upside the head.

In today's version, the tale's been moved to the Pacific Northwest, the hero's been renamed Chris Vaughn, he has a goofy buddy (Johnny Knoxville of MTV's old "Jackass") and the prime corruption's been changed from prostitution to drugs. But our main guy's still got a red-hot temper.

Heat flares up in the Rock's head when drugs wind up in the hands of his little town's kids, so he goes a knockin' with his paddle.

That's pretty much all there is to "Walking Tall." These days at the megaplexes, it's usually enough.

"Walking Tall" is a far cry from the Rock's last film, "The Rundown," a very successful and entertaining ride boasting a constantly-in-motion camera, plenty of head-banging fist fights, monkey humor and an over-the-top Christopher Walken.

"Tall" is short on involving camerawork and shorter on logic. Is there really a town where guys can machine-gun the sheriff's office for what seems like a good 10 minutes and nobody notices?

What we have here is another fine example of the devolution of Hollywood. What was once super-low-budget, indie drive-in fare (the original was filmed for $500,000) has become a bloated, big-studio movie with a bigger budget ($56 million) and launched with a supersized promotional blitz.

The Rock's "Walking Tall" preaches all about evil destroying small-town America. Funny that while it decries the loss of local stores, nobody ever mentions Wal-Mart.

Funny, too, is that while it beats its chest about America, the moviemakers chose to film the silly thing in Canada.